


They's in for a Soaking

by tuppenny



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27344482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuppenny/pseuds/tuppenny
Summary: David had a rough day at work. Jack and Katherine cheer him up.
Relationships: Jack Kelly & David Jacobs, Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber, Katherine Plumber & David Jacobs
Comments: 40
Kudos: 34





	They's in for a Soaking

_Knock knock knock._

“Darling, could you get the door, please? I’m still wrestling with the buttons on my shirtwaist.”

“Yep,” Jack called over his shoulder, placing his tin of pomade down on the bathroom counter and heading to the front of the apartment. He moved his comb to his left hand and yanked the door open with his right, pulling up short at the sight of this unexpected visitor. “Davey?”

“Heya, Jack,” David said, his shoulders a little hunched and his voice a little uncertain.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Come on in, ya big lug; you’s always welcome here, even unannounced. We been through that already, right? Or has your massive brain forgotten the last ten times I toldja that?”

Davey gave a sheepish smile. “I know, I know, I just—”

“David!” Katherine emerged from the bedroom, her face beaming and her shirtwaist fully buttoned. “It’s so good to see you! Jack and I were just headed out for dinner—would you like to join us?”

Davey’s eyes flicked to Jack, who nodded. “She don’t ever need ta check with me about invitin’ ya along, if that’s what you’s givin’ me the wooly eye for.”

Davey flushed. “I—thanks, I’m really sorry for interrupting your date night, I couldn’t possibly—”

“Nonsense,” Katherine said brusquely, looping her arm through David’s and steering him to the door. “We’re all ready to go, why don’t we just—” She broke off and whirled around when Jack tapped her on the shoulder.

“Uh, Ace?” His eyes were twinkling.

“Yes?”

“Davey came here for a reason, an’ we don’t know what it is yet, so hang on a sec before waltzin’ him right out the door again, yeah?”

“Oh!” She quickly disentangled herself from David, holding her hands to her cheeks in dismay. “I’m so sorry! I just got carried away.”

David’s mouth quirked up. “That’s completely fine. I appreciate the warm welcome and the enthusiasm. I’m not getting much of that these days, and…” He shrugged, wishing he hadn’t said the last sentence. “It’s nice to see you.”

“It’s nice to see you, too,” Katherine said, pulling him into a hug. “And anyone who doesn’t give you the warmth and enthusiasm you deserve isn’t worth your time.”

Jack frowned. “Somethin’ happen at Columbia, Dave?”

“Oh, just the same old same old,” David sighed, somehow looking a little more like himself now that he’d been treated to one of Katherine’s favorite cheer-up maneuvers. “My students are saying I’m unfair, that I’m not following the professor’s grading criteria, that the expectations were unclear…”

Katherine crossed her arms and shook her head, and Jack snorted in disgust. “Don’t they know how lucky they are ta have you?” Jack’s right hand reflexively balled into a fist, and even though there weren’t any ungrateful students around for Jack to punch, the gesture warmed Davey’s overburdened, underappreciated heart. “They ain’t ever gonna get a teaching assistant better than you—probably not a professor, neither.”

“Seriously,” Katherine added, her voice heated. “I sat in on some college classes for a story once, and I submitted a few things to be graded, and if I’d gotten _half_ the clarity and feedback that you give your students—no, don’t give me that defeated look, I’ve seen the guidelines you type up for them and watched you grade papers right here in this very apartment, David Jacobs, and if anyone here is being unfair, it’s your _students_ , not you!”

David did grin at that, his friends’ staunch support doing more for him than the thousand repeated reassurances his brain had lobbed at him on the tram ride here. “Yeah?”

“Yes!” Both of his friends exclaimed, and at that moment Davey was certain that their righteous outrage was larger than his own. His smile grew even wider.

Jack clasped Davey’s shoulder in an iron grip. “So who do I need ta go soak, huh? Or wouldja rather Katherine write up a snide column about ‘em in the society pages? Just give us their names, and it’s as good as done.”

David punched Jack lightly in the chest. “You guys are the best, you really are.”

Katherine arched an eyebrow. “You still haven’t told us whom I’m exposing in the paper as a yellow-bellied, lily-livered piece of scum.”

Jack nodded. “Or who I’m pummeling to within an inch of their lying, scummy, dismal little lives.”

David laughed, and his heart felt lighter than it had in weeks. “Actually, I just came by to see if I could pet your cat.”

Jack and Katherine blinked.

“She calms me down,” he explained, his cheeks starting to hurt from smiling. “All that soft fur.”

“Ah,” Jack nodded in understanding. “Yep. She’s good for that.”

Katherine gave David another hug, then pulled back and wagged her index finger in his face. “You can stay here and pet Mitzi for as long as you like, but if you change your mind and want to put some of those pompous, mean-spirited little wretches in their place, all you have to do is say the word. I mean it. Let us know.”

“Thanks, Kath,” David said, biting back a chuckle. “Just petting Mitzi is enough, honestly.”

“Well, if it ain’t,” Jack started.

“It is,” David said firmly.

“But if it ain’t—”

“I’ll be sure to tell you,” David finished. “I know. I hear you. Both of you. Now go eat dinner already.”

Katherine marched into the living room, returning quickly with Mitzi, the Kellys’ black kitten, pressed snugly against her chest. “Here.” She thrust the cat into David’s arms and guided him to the living room, pushing him onto the couch. “Sit. Relax. Eat whatever you want in the kitchen.”

“Just went grocery shopping today,” Jack added, poking his head in from the hallway. “Should be some ham—oh, no, uh, not that. Well, yes, that, but don’t eat it. Obviously. But, uh, I got turkey, too, in the fridge. An’ there’s fresh bread on the counter. Also some apples.”

“A veritable feast,” David half-joked, already running his hand across Mitzi’s smooth fur.

“Have as much as you like,” Katherine said, waving goodbye. “And there’re gingersnaps in the cupboard for dessert.”

“Sure you don’t need me ta beat anyone up for ya?” Jack hollered, opening the doorway to the apartment building’s stairwell.

“Just saying you would was enough,” David called back. “Thank you.” He closed his eyes and sank back into the couch, relaxing into the feeling of being safe and cozy and oh-so-loved. He smiled once more as Jack and Katherine’s voices echoed up the stairwell.

“I think we should change plans and go up to Columbia. Teach those Ivy League snobs a lesson.”

“I agree. And the tram ride up there is more than long enough for you to teach me how to throw a punch, don’t you think?”

“Oh, you bet. You’s a fast learner. By the time we get up there, we’ll be ready ta knock heads.”

“Excellent. We’ll show those boys what happens when you mess with our friends.”

“Darn right…”

Their voices faded away, Mitzi started to purr, and David? David was a happy man. 


End file.
